POD (proof of delivery)
A POD is the evidence that a shipment reached the consignee: a signed consignment note, a receipted delivery note, or a confirmation captured in the driver's app. Without it a carrier has nothing to close the order with and nothing to defend itself with in a claim.
The form of the POD depends on the transport. In international road freight it is the CMR copy signed by the consignee; in domestic distribution it is more often a receipted goods-issue note or a label scanned at unloading. Increasingly the confirmation is born digital: the driver takes a signature on the phone screen, photographs the pallet, and the whole thing lands on the order with a timestamp and a GPS position.
For money the POD is the trigger. Many contracts start the payment term when the confirmation is delivered rather than when the truck is unloaded, so every day the document spends in the cab pushes the cash back. The same rule applies towards subcontractors: no POD, no basis to pay for the run.
The classic trap is a POD that lives in a messaging app. The driver sends a photo, somebody saves it to a drive under a name with a date, and three months later nobody can say which order it belongs to. A confirmation is worth something when it is attached to the order and searchable by number, customer and date.
You can tell this is your topic when customers keep calling for scans and billing holds invoices waiting for paperwork from the road. Every claim then turns into an investigation of who actually signed for the delivery and at what time.